New East Asian Design list online

We are pleased to announce our new online list of East Asian Design books.

A message from Charles Vilnis:

Hello,

Besides my interest in classic ehon picture books and Japanese botanicals, I have been pursuing Japanese design books of the 20th century for many years now, focusing on a few main areas.

There are the kimono-oriented hinagata-bon, largely done in Kyoto from 1890-1935, printed in color and published by Unkindô, Unsôdô, Happôdô, and a few other high-quality printing houses. They restored the heritage of hinagata-bon kimono design works from the 17th and 18th century, which had been created then by such important Kansai ukiyo-e artists as Moronobu and Sukenobu.

In the 20th century, Kamisaka Sekka, Furuya Kôrin, Kaigai Tennen, Tsuda Seifû, Nishida Ungai and many others, besides contributing to the kimono design works, also produced "pure design" albums [zuancho] with collections of wonderfully creative designs for design's sake, largely printed in color woodblock by Unkindô, Unsôdô, etc..

Finally, there are the design books which stray from the dominant medium of color woodblock to employ lithography, stencil, silkscreen, linoleum printing and every imaginable hybrid technique possible, printed largely in Tokyo on every conceivable paper surface, from washi handmade paper to newsprint. I have found wonderful treasures of design, albums by Sugiura Hisui, Yamana Ayao, Fujii Tatsukichi and many others, as well as guides to industrial design and advertising art from the Taisho and early Showa periods of the 'teens, 20's and 30's. All in all, the works present a wonderful vade mecum to a world that is only now being recollected some 65 years after its utter destruction.

We have put together a list of items in stock that you might like from those three areas. Enjoy.

Japanese Commercial Art: 24 volumes

We have just been cataloging our new acquisitions from Japan. This will be of special interest to those who appreciate Japanese commercial design:

[COMMERCIAL ART] GENDAI SHÔGYÔ BIJUTSU ZENSHÛ THE COMPLETE COMMERCIAL ARTIST 24 volumes. Tokyo, ARS, Shôwa 3 [1928] 24 large slender 8vo. vols., this edition bound in red cloth, gilt, with bi-lingual titling. A remarkable compendium, heavily illustrated in color and b+w, exploring the whole world of commercial art, in Japan and abroad, for the professional. With remarkable articles by the leading proponents of Japanese advertising and commercial art of the day. One occasionally finds odd volumes of this thematically organized work, but it is very unusual thus, complete. Essential reference to late Taishô, early Shôwa culture. Complete, very good. SOLD.



We will be issuing an new Japanese and East Asian catalogue near the end of the year. To receive notification of the publication of the electronic version, please contact us at eacatalogue@rarebook.com with your email address.